Benjamin Dreyer
@bcdreyer.social
America's Copy Editor®
author of the New York Times/IndieBound bestseller Dreyer's English and Stet! (the game!) • Random House copy chief/managing editor (ret.) • he/him/his
benjamindreyer.com
author of the New York Times/IndieBound bestseller Dreyer's English and Stet! (the game!) • Random House copy chief/managing editor (ret.) • he/him/his
benjamindreyer.com
Pinned
Benjamin Dreyer
@bcdreyer.social
· Nov 27
Greetings, new people here at House of Copyediting. Besides first-rate, IISSM, prose advice, you'll get:
• a random theater photo of the day, sometimes more than one
• birthday alerts for dead actresses, and occasionally live ones
• Sallie updates
And it's all free!
• a random theater photo of the day, sometimes more than one
• birthday alerts for dead actresses, and occasionally live ones
• Sallie updates
And it's all free!
🚨 Paging Miss Bankhead! Miss Bankhead, please! 🚨
Love that this sentence works with every stressor
*I* wouldn’t sell him a pierogi
I *wouldn’t* sell him a pierogi
I wouldn’t *sell* him a pierogi
I wouldn’t sell *him* a pierogi
I wouldn’t sell him *a* pierogi
I wouldn’t sell him a *pierogi*
So many usage cases!
*I* wouldn’t sell him a pierogi
I *wouldn’t* sell him a pierogi
I wouldn’t *sell* him a pierogi
I wouldn’t sell *him* a pierogi
I wouldn’t sell him *a* pierogi
I wouldn’t sell him a *pierogi*
So many usage cases!
November 26, 2025 at 5:43 AM
🚨 Paging Miss Bankhead! Miss Bankhead, please! 🚨
👇🏻
"I wouldn't make him a pierogi with *your* stove."
November 26, 2025 at 4:46 AM
👇🏻
Can we make "I wouldn't sell him a pierogi" a thing people say?
November 26, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Can we make "I wouldn't sell him a pierogi" a thing people say?
"Karoline had no involvement whatsoever in this matter."
Like fudge she didn't.
Like fudge she didn't.
November 26, 2025 at 4:33 AM
"Karoline had no involvement whatsoever in this matter."
Like fudge she didn't.
Like fudge she didn't.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Bitch, AI isn't conscious you're just lonely
November 26, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Bitch, AI isn't conscious you're just lonely
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
i read this years ago and every time i've repeated it people look at me like i just confessed to the jfk assassination
he believes what now
November 26, 2025 at 4:14 AM
i read this years ago and every time i've repeated it people look at me like i just confessed to the jfk assassination
She needs to be nuremberg'd asap.
The first official confirmation that Noem herself made the decision not to turn the planes around. A couple hundred men were tortured as a result — and soon after, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Trump admin’s Alien Enemies Act process was a total violation of due process.
BREAKING:
“After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador. “
“After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador. “
November 26, 2025 at 3:34 AM
She needs to be nuremberg'd asap.
Get in, losers, we're remaking Five Million Years to Earth.
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 26, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Get in, losers, we're remaking Five Million Years to Earth.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
New York City helped my mother become the artist she is today. The next generation deserves a City Hall that lifts up tomorrow's artists as well.
November 26, 2025 at 1:49 AM
New York City helped my mother become the artist she is today. The next generation deserves a City Hall that lifts up tomorrow's artists as well.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Is that a lot?
Only 1% of consumers said business conditions were good in the U.S., according to the Conference Board’s report.
Consumer Confidence Falls Sharply In November—Hitting Lowest Level Since April
Only 1% of consumers said business conditions were good in the U.S., according to the Conference Board’s report.
www.forbes.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Is that a lot?
If I had a double z in my surname I think I'd do something about that right about now.
November 26, 2025 at 3:12 AM
If I had a double z in my surname I think I'd do something about that right about now.
All of us who graduated from The Wheatley School with Steve Witkoff in 1975 can take great pleasure in knowing that almost nothing any of us could ever do would make us the biggest asshole in our class.
November 26, 2025 at 3:09 AM
All of us who graduated from The Wheatley School with Steve Witkoff in 1975 can take great pleasure in knowing that almost nothing any of us could ever do would make us the biggest asshole in our class.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
This is so many layers of writing removed from something I also do not want to read
Just opened my copy of status and saw "Ryan Lizza will publish his latest entry into his ongoing Olivia Nuzzi series in the next 24 hours or so, Lachlan Cartwright reported in his newsletter Breaker."
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 AM
This is so many layers of writing removed from something I also do not want to read
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
If people want to understand why American politics went bananas in 2012, the reason is that the moderate black President took a modest but consequential step toward decoupling healthcare from employment and every billionaire immediately poured their entire portfolio into race-hate media
November 26, 2025 at 1:37 AM
If people want to understand why American politics went bananas in 2012, the reason is that the moderate black President took a modest but consequential step toward decoupling healthcare from employment and every billionaire immediately poured their entire portfolio into race-hate media
Drop whatever you're doing and read this right away. It's delightful and highlarious.
It's almost Thanksgiving, so I decided to do a silly post on food and my adolescent obsession with cereal--not eating it; making it. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Midwestern Adolescents Dream of Pez Crunch
Or, My Dashed Dreams of Cereal Entrepreneurship
substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Drop whatever you're doing and read this right away. It's delightful and highlarious.
"Book piracy is a kind of librarianship."
Well, that's a fascinating take.
Well, that's a fascinating take.
November 26, 2025 at 2:10 AM
"Book piracy is a kind of librarianship."
Well, that's a fascinating take.
Well, that's a fascinating take.
Which reminds me that one of my least favorite online posts is the vociferously-condemning-something-no-one-says-or-does post.
"People say that dogs don't have souls, but
NO ONE SAYS THAT.
"People say that dogs don't have souls, but
NO ONE SAYS THAT.
November 26, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Which reminds me that one of my least favorite online posts is the vociferously-condemning-something-no-one-says-or-does post.
"People say that dogs don't have souls, but
NO ONE SAYS THAT.
"People say that dogs don't have souls, but
NO ONE SAYS THAT.
Everything about a dog is wondrous, to be sure, but that dogs dream is particularly so.
November 26, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Everything about a dog is wondrous, to be sure, but that dogs dream is particularly so.
I can't endorse the current apparent competition here to best describe the sound of RFK Jr. en route to what the French refer to as the little death, but neither can I condemn it.
Some of you need a timeout, though.
Some of you need a timeout, though.
November 26, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I can't endorse the current apparent competition here to best describe the sound of RFK Jr. en route to what the French refer to as the little death, but neither can I condemn it.
Some of you need a timeout, though.
Some of you need a timeout, though.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
If you're dead you don't pay anything.
Markwayne Mullin on healthcare: "What the president would like to do is say, hey, if you take care of yourself -- you don't smoke, you don't dip, you're not drinking, you're not overweight, you're working out -- then you should pay less than the guy that obviously is not taking care of himself."
November 25, 2025 at 11:33 PM
If you're dead you don't pay anything.
If I'm properly understanding the discourse of the last two days:
You should never steal a pie. If you want a pie that bad and can't afford it, you should borrow it from the library.
Also: All pies are good. Or: All pies are bad. Not sure which.
You should never steal a pie. If you want a pie that bad and can't afford it, you should borrow it from the library.
Also: All pies are good. Or: All pies are bad. Not sure which.
November 25, 2025 at 11:24 PM
If I'm properly understanding the discourse of the last two days:
You should never steal a pie. If you want a pie that bad and can't afford it, you should borrow it from the library.
Also: All pies are good. Or: All pies are bad. Not sure which.
You should never steal a pie. If you want a pie that bad and can't afford it, you should borrow it from the library.
Also: All pies are good. Or: All pies are bad. Not sure which.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
It’s Charles’s birthday tomorrow.
November 25, 2025 at 8:34 PM
It’s Charles’s birthday tomorrow.
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Away with the dotard, to the jail with him!
November 25, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Away with the dotard, to the jail with him!
I see that the footnotes vs. endnotes discourse has reemerged.
And that's my cue.
And that's my cue.
Too many notes?
[notes on notes]
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:37 PM
I see that the footnotes vs. endnotes discourse has reemerged.
And that's my cue.
And that's my cue.